Thursday, 9 August 2012

Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957) was an English poet and novelist. His masterpiece is "Under the Volcano" (1937), set in Mexico where he lived from 1936 to 1939. Like many celebrated writers, he was an alcoholic. "Volcano" has been placed at number 11 by The Modern Library's Best Novels of the 20th century. "Under the Volcano" was made into a 1984 motion picture by director John Huston. It explores one day in the life of an alcoholic British diplomat on the eve of WW2 and the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration. As with Huston's "Night of the Iguana," "Volcano" was shot by the Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (1907-1997). @2009 David Lee Guss Mexican funeral bier, 1890's-2009 Read more

Andrzej Brakoniecki, painter and printmaker. He has made Vancouver, British Columbia his home for the past 30 years. He studied painting at the Collage of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland and classical animation at Vancouver Film School.His paintings and prints are in public and private collections in anada,USA,Mexico, Germany, France, England, Russia and Poland. Read more and see the series of paintings

Autor The Steppe and In The Woods at the Specialised Ceramics school in Prague (1949 – 1952) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1953 – 1959; Miroslav Holý, Karel Souček). Taugh at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1990 – 1995. Has exhibited as part of a group since 1954, and on his own since 1962. Member of the group Šmidrové (from the year 1954), Umělecká beseda (Art Meeting; 1964 – 1972), the group Zaostalí (Retarded; from the year 1987) and the Association of Visual Artists Mánes (from the year 1995). Created twenty-three film posters over the years 1962 – 1971. he is considered one of the prominent authors of the 60’s and 70’s. His posters for films like 8 ½, Hiroshima, My Love and The Pink Panther are known worldwide. Read more

A conference organised by the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Bergen, Norway; funded by the Bergen Research Foundation through the ‘Modernism and Christianity’ research project.Professor Chris Ackerley – The Nordic vision of Malcolm Lowry’s In Ballast to the White Sea Malcolm Lowry’s re-discovered novel, In Ballast to the White Sea, is set in the 1930s and depicts its central character as caught between a vision of Cambridge Socialism (Russia) and a Nordic vision (Norway); but the latter is complicated by the Nazi appropriation of the Aryan ideal and the Axis desire to create a sphere of influence throughout the Baltic countries. This political theme is complemented and mediated by the literary one: Lowry’s deliberate adoption of Nordic themes and allusions, most notably from Nordahl Grieg, The Ship Sails On and Johannes Jensen, The Long Journey, but many others as well. These constitute a dialogue between Grieg’s socialism, Jensen’s advocacy of a Nordic vision, and Lowry’s attraction to both, despite their incompatibility; an attraction that led him to a complex understanding (often acute, sometimes incongruous) of the political climate as he perceived it to be in Norway, and with reference to himself.Chris Ackerley is Professor and previous Head of English at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. His speciality is annotation, particularly of the work of Samuel Beckett and Malcolm Lowry, He has two full-length annotations of Beckett’s Murphy and Watt (republished Edinburgh U P, 2010), and with Stan Gontarski is author of the Grove Press and Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett (2004, 2006). He is currently working on a study of Samuel Beckett and Science, and annotating three texts in the EMiC (Editing Manuscripts in Canada) project, one of which is Lowry’s recently re-discovered novel, In Ballast to the White Sea.

Malcolm Lowry’s heavily annotated working typescript of his most complete articulation of his life’s work: his plan for an epic that would rival in scope the great literary undertakings of the 20th century of Proust, Joyce, and Pound. It is the immediate precursor – with substantial variations – to a foundational document of Lowry scholarship housed in the Lowry Archive at University of British Columbia. Read more here

Luis López Loza was born in Mexico City in 1939. He studied in the “Esmeralda” School of Painting and Sculpture, in the Center of Applied Arts, both in Mexico, and the Pratt Graphic Art Center in New York. In 1966 he received Honorary Mention in Casa de las Américas, in Havana, Cuba, and in 1969 in the Triennial of Woodcut in Modena, Italy. In 1973 he received the Biennial of Printmaking Award in Tokyo, Japan, and the National Printmaking Award in Mexico in 1977. In 1975 he was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Read more

Born in Milan, Mario Canali began his artistic career in 1975, devoting the first ten years of his career to painting. Shortly thereafter he turned his attention to electronic and digital art and is considered one of the pioneers of that art form. Second to John Lasseter at Ars Electronica in Linz for two consecutive years and winner of numerous awards at the national level (Nastro d’Argento, Rome) as well as internationally (Imagina, Monte Carlo) in the field of computer graphics and 3D animation, Mario Canali pioneered immersive virtual reality (Satori, 1992) and interactive installations, using body parameters to probe people’s emotional states. Canali’s studies and research in digital media, new paradigms of science, psychology and neurology earned him teaching credentials at Accademia di Brera in Milan "Virtual Reality and Paradigms of Complexity” and NABA Academy of Arts and Design in Milan “Emotional Scenes and Cognitive Environments”. After twenty years of experience with new media, Canali returns to painting to create new and exciting spaces for expression, communication and research. Read more

Mexican votives are small paintings, usually executed on tin roof tiles or small plaques, depicting the moment of personal humility when an individual asks a saint for help and is delivered from disaster and sometimes death. 'Infinitas Gracias' will feature over 100 votive paintings drawn from five collections held by museums in and around Mexico City and two sanctuaries located in mining communities in the Bajío region to the north: the city of Guanajuato and the distant mountain town of Real de Catorce. Together with images, news reports, photographs, devotional artefacts, film and interviews, the exhibition will illustrate the depth of the votive tradition in Mexico.Usually commissioned from local artists by the petitioner, votive paintings tell immediate and intensely personal stories, from domestic dramas to revolutionary violence, through which a markedly human history of communities and their culture can be read. The votives displayed in 'Infinitas Gracias' date from the 18th century to the present day. Over this period, thousands of small paintings came to line the walls of Mexican churches as gestures of thanksgiving, replacing powerful doctrine-driven images of the saints with personal and direct pleas for help. The votives are intimate records of the tumultuous dramas of everyday life - lightning strikes, gunfights, motor accidents, ill-health and false imprisonment - in which saintly intervention was believed to have led to survival and reprieve.'Infinitas Gracias' will explore the reaction of individuals at the moment of crisis in which their strength of faith comes into play. The profound influence of these vernacular paintings, and the artists and individuals who painted them, can be seen in the work of such figures as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who were avid collectors. The contemporary legacy of the votive ritual will be present in the exhibition through a wall covered with modern-day offerings from one church in Guanajuato: a paper shower of letters, certificates, photographs, clothing and flowers, through which the tradition of votive offering continues today. The sanctuaries at Guanajuato and Real de Catorce remain centres of annual pilgrimage, attracting thousands of people to thank and celebrate their chosen saints.

A teacher at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop once asked his student Denis Johnson what he’d been reading in his spare time. “I only ever read one book,” he responded, Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano. Slackers love Denis Johnson and his cast of degenerates, so this Spicoli-style answer feels appropriate in tone. It’s also spot-on in content, since Volcano anticipates the author’s central theme. Read full article by Dan Duray on New York Observer

I thought the title of this film had a certain ironic ring, thinking of Under The Volcano, given that it was supposed to have been filmed in the mountains around Cuernavaca according to some commentators! Log 24 Some sources state it was filmed in Uruapan west of Cuernavaca. Gary Cooper Scrapbook

Garden of Evil (1954) is a Western film about three somewhat disreputable 19th-century soldiers of fortune, played by Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, and Cameron Mitchell, who are hired by a woman, portrayed by Susan Hayward, to rescue her husband. The movie was directed by Henry Hathaway.

En route to California to prospect for gold, Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark), and Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) stop over in a tiny Mexican village. The three men and Vicente Madariaga (Victor Manuel Mendoza) are hired by a desperate Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) to rescue her husband John (Hugh Marlowe), who is trapped in a gold mine in hostile Indian territory.

During the harrowing journey, the party's already frayed nerves are aggravated when the men become attracted to the woman. The group then arrives at the mine site — called the "Garden of Evil" because the Indians regard it as the domain of evil spirits. They find an injured, but living John Fuller.As they leave, they are pursued by Apaches. Eventually, only Hooker, Fiske and Leah are left alive. At a narrow point in the road, the two men draw cards to see who will stay behind to hold off the Indians while the other two ride to safety. Fiske "wins" and succeeds in killing or driving off the enemy. After seeing that Leah is safe, Hooker returns to talk with a dying Fiske, who urges him to settle down with Leah.

On another romantic front, Mitchell became infatuated with Hayward. However, Hayward, who was in the process of divorcing her husband, Jess Barker, was not interested in Mitchell. During a New Year's Eve celebration of cast and crew in nearby Cuernavaca, a slightly intoxicated Hayward leaned over to Mitchell and ran her fingernails down his cheek, drawing blood and forcing director Hathaway to delay filming until the facial wounds healed.

On another romantic front, Mitchell became infatuated with Hayward. However, Hayward, who was in the process of divorcing her husband, Jess Barker, was not interested in Mitchell. During a New Year's Eve celebration of cast and crew in nearby Cuernavaca, a slightly intoxicated Hayward leaned over to Mitchell and ran her fingernails down his cheek, drawing blood and forcing director Hathaway to delay filming until the facial wounds healed. Wikipedia

Susan Hayward later went to a jammed cafe in Cuernavaca with the cast to celebrate New Year's Eve. After a few brandies she leaned over to Mitchell, knowing his attraction to her, and ran her long fingernails deeply along his cheek, drawing blood and leaving wounds that caused director Hathaway to delay further shooting until the scabs vanished. Mitchell was scarred for life. Hathaway had a difficult time with Hayward, who delayed productions and often walked off the set when annoyed with his brusque ways. The film went over budget and beyond schedule, although Cooper remained mute about the temperament his costar displayed; Hayward was then one of the top box-office actresses. Movies TV Guide

Mission To establish: an embassy for the soul of the English-speaking world - its literature - in Mexico; an educational resource for Chilangos learning English and eager to explore the artistic reach of the language; a foundation for an international literary magazine, Mexico Review, appearing in 2013; a web-free, Kindle-less island of analog time in the digital sea; a community center for Commonwealth and American expatriates in the most exciting, vibrant and accessible city on Earth; an institution that will pay tribute to that city's magnificence with the best our native culture has to offer.

My Gutted Arcades of the Past project continues to grow - I have passed the 300 posts mark with a huge amount of work still to be posted.

I am still making new discoveries about Malc's life and work which mean continual updates to Gutted Arcades. My latest discovery is the exact route Lowry took on his 1927 voyage to the Far East on board the Blue Funnel ship Pyrrhus. This has provided many clues to references in Malc's work especially in Ultramarine. I have now completed several posts on the ports he visited in 1927 - the most recent being on Kobe and Keelung:

Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, has come to Quauhnahuac, Mexico. His debilitating malaise is drinking, an activity that has overshadowed his life. On the most fateful day of the consul's life-- the Day of the Dead, 1938-- his wife, Yvonne, arrives in Quauhnahuac, inspired by a vision of life together away from Mexico and the circumstances that have driven their relationship to the brink of collapse.She is determined to rescue Firmin and their failing marriage, but her mission is further complicated by the presence of Hugh, the consul's half brother, and Jacques, a childhood friend. The events of this one significant day unfold against an unforgettable backdrop of a Mexico at once magical and diabolical."Under the Volcano" remains one of literature's most powerful and lyrical statements on the human condition, and a brilliant portrayal of one man's constant struggle against the elemental forces that threaten to destroy him.
Thanks to Gill Dong for letting me know about the night.

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Act 1Ichabod Bronson is a wealthy hypocrite who preaches virtue to the young, so as to leave more scope for dissipation among the old. His son, Harry, is a feather-brained spendthrift, engaged to Cora Angelique, the Queen of Comic Opera. After a riotous stag night, Harry ends up with Fifi, the daughter of Fricot the confectioner. Ichabod discovers them together and disinherits Harry. Deserted by all but Fifi, Harry wanders into Chinatown in New York, where his fickle fancy is taken by a young Salvation Army woman, Violet Gray. She finds her vocation difficult because, though she tries to persuade men to follow her blameless ways, they persist in following her blameless figure. Ichabod discovers that Violet is the daughter of an old friend and announces his intention to leave his huge fortune to her.

Act 2Harry has taken a job as a salesman in a candy store on Broadway. Violet and her Salvationist colleagues enter the shop, all decked out in short skirts. She knows that Harry is engaged to Cora and wants the couple to be happy. She tells Harry that she is going to change Ichabod's mind about leaving his money to her. On the beach at Narragansett Casino, she sings a risqué French song, scandalising an audience including Ichabod. The effort of performing the song causes her to faint. Matters are further complicated by the persistent attempts of a German lunatic to kill people, particularly Ichabod, and by the quarrels of Portuguese twins, who keep trying to fight duels with one another. Harry has indeed been much influenced by Violet's virtue and has fallen for her. He explains to his father why Violet has behaved so uncharacteristically, and Ichabod forgives him his earlier sins on condition that he marries Violet, which he is now happy to do.

In a letter to Jan Gabrial in the Summer of 1933, Lowry said he went to see the musical comedy because of the title - likening Jan to the belle of New York - where she was from. However, the plot had funny coincidental undertones to Lowry's life a the time - the idea mooted by Lowry later that his father was a hypocrite - dying of cirrhosis of the liver (untrue); Arthur Lowry may have thought Malc a spendthrift having just smashed up his car while staying in Torquay, the idea of disinheritance because of his behaviour haunted Lowry, a month before he had "hidden" Jan from his father when his father paid him a visit in Portmeirion though the happening end of the musical comedy didn't transpire for Lowry and Jan.

I have just posted about Lowry's connection to the pub on Gutted Arcades of the Past. In doing research for the post I came across a 1936 advert:

This hotel has proved a port of call and pleasant resting place for such national characters as the poets SHELLEY and KEATS, also the artist TURNER when painting his pictures of sunsets on the River Dee. It was the source for that famous song "SIMON THE CELLARER", which was composed here.

The advert made me smile as it could have been written by Malc at his mischievous best with his penchant for tall stories - perhaps he was the source for the unknowing landlord?

The song by John Liptrot Hatton, 'Simon the Cellarer' was not written in the pub but more than likely it was about the former Ring O' Bells in Bidston. Though I did think you could add it to the Malc playlist for the next Lowry Lounge!

Here are the words:

Old Simon the cellarer keeps a rare store,
Of Malmsey and Malvoisie
And Cyprus, and who can say how many more!
For a chary old soul is he,
A chary old soul is he.

Of Sack and Canary he never doth fail,
And all the year round there is brewing of ale,
Yet he never aileth, he quaintly doth say,
While he keeps to his sober six flagons a day.
But ho! ho! ho! his nose doth shew
How oft the black Jack to his lips doth go.
But ho! ho! ho! his nose doth shew
How oft the black Jack to his lips doth go.

Dame Margery sits in her own still-room,
And a matron sage is she,
From thence oft at Curfew is wafted a fume;
She says it is Rosemary,
She says it is Rosemary.
But there's a small curboard behind the back stair,
And the maids say they often see Margery there -
Now Margery says that she grows very old,
And must take a something to keep out the cold!

But ho! ho! ho! old Simon doth know,
Where many a flask of his best doth go.
But ho! ho! ho! old Simon doth know,
Where many a flask of his best doth go.
Old Simon reclines in his high-back'd chair,
And talks about taking a wife;
And Margery often is heard to declare
That she ought to be settled in life,
She ought to be settled in life.

But Margery has (so the maids say) a tongue,
And she's not very handsome, and not very young:
So somehow it ends with a shake of the head,
And Simon he brews him a tankard instead.
While ho! ho! ho! he will chuckle and crow,
What! Marry old Margery? no, no, no!
While ho! ho! ho! He will chuckle and crow,
What! Marry old Margery? no, no, no!

The references to Malmsey would resonate with Lowry fans - who would recall how Malc stated that he was named Clarence after Shakespeare's duke who died head-down in a malmsey butt; Rosemary - the name of the elephant in the short story 'Elephant and Colosseum' and of course Margery - his second wife.

Saturday, 7 July 2012

I may have been neglecting Malc on my 19th Hole Blog but I have been busy over on my Gutted Arcades of The Past blog unravelling Malc's early work and life.

I have passed the 200 posts mark on Gutted Arcades of The Past with plenty more to come. Recent posts have included a breakdown of Malc's references to his time in France in 1926 and 1933/34 plus details of those trips; a further breakdown of his 1931 trip to Norway and the beginnings of my research into the many literary allusions in Ultramarine.

Friday, 4 May 2012

The project is an attempt to create an encyclopaedia of Malcolm Lowry’s early life and work from 1909 to 1934. The cut off date of 1934 was chosen as a symbolic one reflecting him turning his back on Europe for the New World leaving Southampton on 28th July 1934 for New York aboard the Aquitania.

I have now decided to start sharing my work in the form of a blog to sit alongside my main Lowry blog Malcolm Lowry @ The Nineteenth Hole.

Apologies to regular readers of 19th Hole for my absence over the last few months. This is due mainly to my involvement in several other projects. I intend to get back on track with all things Malc over the next couple of weeks.

The second edition of the Firminist hit the streets in late 2011. The magazine featured the following:

The site, in particular Chapter I, was substantially revised and expanded. Further expansions are planned, incorporating Chris Ackerley's ongoing annotations of Lowry's other works and David Large's doctoral research on Lowry.

Chris also states:

The next phase for the site is set to coincide with the ongoing digitalisation of the UBC Special Collection archives. We plan to rewrite entries in light of the discoveries and comments of the EMiC Project, which includes new editions of "Swinging the Maelstrom", In Ballast to the White Sea and the 1940 Volcano.

About Me

Welcome to Malcolm Lowry @ The 19th Hole

I set this blog up to mark the centenary of Malcolm Lowry's birth in July 2009.

I want to use the blog to publish my on-going research into Lowry's Wirral and to document my psychogeographical wanderings around Wirral and Liverpool in search of Lowry's spirit.

I will also use the blog to document the various themes that run through Lowry's work such as his love of cinema and jazz which I share with him.

Draw up a stool and join Malc and me at the bar in the clubhouse and enjoy the night!

Colin Dilnot

colin.dilnot@gmail.com

The photograph shows the original Caldy Golf Clubhouse, Wirral (not actually the 19th hole because the course was only 9 holes when first developed!) circa 1910.

You can see Caldy in the background which was just being developed by David Benno Rappart.

The clubhouse would have looked like this when Malcolm Lowry as a youth used the course which was near to his home at Inglewood in Caldy.

The clubhouse was located to the west of the Hooton to West Kirby Railway line near a bridge crossing what is now Shore Road. The building still stands and has been converted to residential accommodation though the landscape has changed considerably in a 100 years.

I will be sharing more information and photographs detailing Lowry's Wirral both on the blog.

An essay detailing some of my research is now published in a book called Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the world.

I am currently working on a bigger project entitled 'Gutted Arcades of the Past' detailing Lowry's early life and works.

Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World Biggs, Bryan & Tookey, Helen (eds)

Malcolm Lowry described Liverpool as ‘that terrible city whose main street is the ocean’. Born on the Wirral side of the river Mersey, Lowry’s relationship to the Merseyside of his youth informs all of his writing and Liverpool itself continued to hold tremendous significance for him, even though he never returned. Published in conjunction with a festival and exhibition at Liverpool’s Bluecoat arts centre celebrating Lowry’s centenary, this beautifully produced book showcases a variety of creative and critical approaches to Lowry and his work, and includes twelve specially commissioned pieces of new writing. There is a particular focus on place and on journeys; contributors write from the UK, Europe, Canada and Mexico, and reflect both on Lowry’s ‘voyage that never ends’ and on their own journeys with and through Lowry’s work. The book also demonstrates the richness of Lowry’s influence on contemporary visual artists and includes full-colour illustrations throughout. It will be an indispensable companion for anyone interested in the creative legacy of Malcolm Lowry’s life and work.